Led backend development for a large, high-traffic WordPress multisite (The Tab and babe.net) reaching millions of monthly readers: query, transient and object-cache optimisation, plus AWS infrastructure (EC2, S3, Elastic Beanstalk) and CircleCI pipelines. Also built and ran a separate web application for the network’s student editors, alongside Node.js microservices and interactive campaign tools.
Skill: WordPress
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Vendor Database Migration & Performance Recovery
Migrated a Notion-based vendor database into a structured WordPress custom post type and taxonomy system for a digital agency client. Diagnosed and resolved a live performance crisis, PHP-FPM exhaustion under a botnet traffic spike, fixing it with Cloudflare WAF rules, caching configuration, and database indexing. Also resolved a broken email deliverability issue on the same site.
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Ministry of Justice Intranet
New intranet replacing legacy CMS for ~70,000 MoJ staff. Heavy WordPress customisation, GOV.UK styling/best practices, custom plugins (Govspeak/markdown live preview, JS menu API, RedDot import), custom Customiser controls, multi-tab page template. Saved tens of thousands of pounds/year.
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Ministry of Justice (various sites)
Migrated various MoJ sites from legacy platform to WordPress, added functionality, responsive redesign.
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Technical Consultant / Contract Engineer
RAG application work (Motorclue), alongside a mix of freelance client engagements: platform migration and performance recovery for a digital agency client, headless WordPress/Next.js development for an EdTech platform, post-migration SEO recovery for a music retailer, and ongoing WordPress maintenance and event-related development for a live events company. Also building the DecomPress plugin suite for WordPress agencies, and shipping TS/React AI/RAG demos to stay current.
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Head of Technology
Led migration of 8-site publishing estate from external agency to in-house AWS serverless infrastructure, zero downtime. Grew the estate 50% and traffic 120%, cut costs ~15%, supported 2,300+ concurrent users/min via multi-layer caching (RDS optimisation, object caching, Cloudflare full-page caching). Built/led distributed team (UK + Kosovo). MongoDB/GraphQL used in headless WordPress switch.
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Lead Developer
The Times: rewrote legacy codebase into structured MVC form, site-wide caching for high-priority news cycles, headless WordPress + Angular front-end. MoJ: architected themes/plugins/API suite for government-wide intranet to GDS compliance and security standards.
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JOE Media Platform Migration
8-site AWS serverless migration, zero downtime, 50% estate growth, 15% cost reduction, 2,300+ concurrent users/min supported. Distributed team across UK/Kosovo.